President Trump’s renovation of our national mall’s reflecting pool now better reflects his presidency. Now, instead of serenely reflecting the surrounding monuments, the pool reflects perfectly the boondoggle that Trump’s faux government has become—one that instead of serving people, sucks resources from them to create a cash cow for Trump’s family and their cronies. Trump’s overpaid, no-bid contractor transformed the pool into a flashy Mar-a-Lago dark blue that heated up, proliferated algae and whose paint immediately peeled off. Tourists collected its paint sheets as expensive souvenirs that American taxpayers unwillingly funded before its do-nothing Congress or the courts could stop it. One tourist was arrested, but the main culprit for the hideous reflecting pool vandalism remains at large.
Like this project, Trump’s presidency is a boondoggle scam heating up needless conflicts that accelerate the end of American Empire while it abandons America’s homeland needs. The paint has peeled off the US Empire. America’s partnership with Israel has revealed its universally reviled underbelly. Just visit China to compare and see what kind of cities and absence of homeless people that well-prioritized national wealth can create for average people.
America is now an irrational player on the world scene upending order and ancient civilizations with criminal threats, bombing and genocide. Nobody trashes “America First” like Trump himself. The US is becoming like Israel, just as Americans feel a growing wave of revulsion toward that little genocidal state with no borders that has gotten control of America’s political and military systems against American interest. Post-9/11 Middle East wars have helped raise our national debt to $40 trillion dollars—a mighty burden passed to our children.
President Trump started an unprovoked war of aggression against Iran that we were guaranteed to lose. His duty now is to minimize the damage to America and the world’s economy. Although Trump signed an initial MOU giving Iran everything they demanded, he now threatens the negotiations with war crimes: to destroy Iran and the lives of negotiators, gaslighting all of us. Does Trump want peace after being advised that only one month of oil reserves remain? This is not the behavior of a sane man who wants peace. Vice President JD Vance attempts to minimize Trump’s criminal outbursts while dressing down the Israelis as ingrates biting the hand of the only Country giving them substantial aid. Nevertheless, peace talks had to be moved from France to Switzerland because Pakistani and Chinese intel learned that Israelis planned to assassinate the Iranian negotiators—a common Israeli practice. Israel’s newest plan is to quietly merge Israeli and American military including intelligence, strategic plans, etc.—a scheme almost impossible to undo. This plan sneaked into the National Defense Authorization Act made it out of committee where an oral vote was taken ensuring that constituents remain ignorant of how their representatives voted. To regain our sovereignty (which Israel has usurped with the cooperation of a succession of US presidents, the “special relationship” must burst apart. A succession of US presidents submitted to Israel’s demands contrary to John F. Kennedy, who prophetically tried to stop Israel’s “secret” nuclear program and was assassinated. Lynden Johnson began the traitorous collaboration with Israel when he called back the aircrafts rescuing the USS Liberty in an Israeli false flag attack that tried to blame Egypt for Israel’s sustained attack against a beleaguered American battleship. This has been an aggressive decades-long cover-up.
Recently defeated Congressman Thomas Massey read a description of that infamous day in Congress. He also worked with Congressman Rho Khanna to reveal the Epstein files that President Trump promised to expose but then covered up. Congressman Massey also opposes foreign wars that contradict America’s interests. Massey is a rare elected leader—now even more rare because Trump made sure to “primary” him out of office. With remaining time in office, Trump’s primary interference will boomerang. How have we become more like Israel? 1. Due to our level of entitlement and exceptionalism overriding international law and rules of war that America itself set up following World War II. Now we create chaos instead of building bridges with a succession of “forever, Greater Israel” wars. 2. We assassinate leaders like Trump assassinating Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who had helped Trump combat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. (Iran absorbed this loss without revenge.) 3. We now target children as on the first day of the Iran War when Secretary Hegseth’s “triple tap” against a private girls’ school (ages 7 to 12,) killed around 175 children. 4. We now carry out “double or triple taps.” As girls gathered in the prayer room, a tomahawk missile hit the school burning the girls up, then additional attacks hit the first responders and parents who came looking for their children. Trump added insult to injury by falsely blaming Iranians–no apology or compensation. Body parts are still being identified and returned to parents. Let us not tolerate, normalize, defend and even applaud these actions by remembering the precious lives of these children loved by their families and lost in a great war crime. America’s true and greatest exceptionalism is our First Amendment. Free speech and the ability to criticize Israel has been censored by our Bully-in-Chief and must be returned to students in universities because free inquiry and freedom to protest creates essential citizens.
America lost the ill-advised Iran war–Israel’s final regime-change battle–creating cracks in the unbreakable US-Israel pact. If this loss helps deconstruct our empire-gone-haywire, it may be a win for the American people whose democracy cannot survive the evil empire it has become. Congress is much to blame for allowing this perversion of America. Remember that our Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline stands squarely with Trump.
-Cynthia Munley
Salem
